replacing sofa with recliners

[faye]

we have a national seabreeze with fold out sofa bed and no recliners...has anyone removed the sofa and replaced it with two small recliners? if so what problems did you face? will the sofa go thru the door??? how could you do the seat belts for the recliners as we will need this for additional seating when traveling and would need the recliners bolted to the floor and seat belt for each???any suggestions or pictures of similar install would be helpful. thanks

[motojavaphil]

Faye,

I looked up the Seabreeze and was not sure if you have a slide or how deep the slides are. We replaced our sleeper couch with two recliners in a 5r. It turned out to be a mistake. The slide, when extended, was elevated above the floor. The recliners were precariously perched on the slide out floor. If you leaned forward the chair would toss you out as it fell forward onto the main floor. I screwed the chairs down with some success but really never felt happy with the setup.
I guess what I am saying is be cautious approaching this project. Do measurements and make sure your recliners will fit. I have read where others have successfully done this so it can be done. Our present sleeper couch has part of the stereo under it so there is more to moving the couch out.
I wish you luck with this. I am sure others can chime in on this with more experience.
Good Luck,
Moto

[paz]

Other than the possibility of a step as mentioned above, there are 2 other cautions I can think of. One you already thought of - seating positions while driving. There are some recliners that are made to be bolted to the floor. These will probably be satisfactory for use with seat belts provided you can bolt them to the same support member used for the original couch. I have seen some Euro-recliners with clips that are used to keep them from moving while driving, but the clips are not anywhere near strong enough to hold the chair plus a 200+ lb adult in a collision situation. If you need the seat belt positions, I would be very wary of changing the seating.

The other caution is for sleeping. Do you ever expect to have guests or grand kids accompany you? If so, do you have another place for them to sleep?

[Tincup]

I did exactly what you want to and had no problems. The back comes off of the sofa/sleeper with four bolts, each half fits through the door. I replaced it with an off the shelf rocker/recliner from Lazy Boy. Again, the back slides out and the two pieces fit through the door. I don't experience the issue mentioned above with my slide out, the chair sits comfortably on the slide when it's retracted. I was able to re-use one of the holes and bolts that held the sofa to secure the chair when traveling.

One other advantage is you loose a couple of hundred pounds by dumping the sofa.

[Bob (WA0MQE)]

I did the same thing also. Here's a couple of photos showing where we put them in place of the large hide-a-bed couch and the type of recliners. We chose this style because they're a little bit smaller then the typical recliner.



I disassembled the couch in order to get it through the doorway, which was required due to it's physical size, but also because it broke down into enough pieces so I could carry it out by myself.

[SideRoads]

Took the fold out bed couch apart and replaced with lazyboy recliners.......the recliners sleep better than the sofabed........I have not bolted them down, yet,,,,,,

[krnlueck]

We also removed our sleeper sofa. The arms and back came off and it easily fit through the door.

We found two smaller recliners that are 32" w, 34" deep, and 37" high, at Haverty's Furniture in Fl. They are made by "Best" furniture. They came in two pieces and easily fit in through the RV door. Other furniture stores sell them as well, but the ones we got were made to Haverty's specs and had heavier fabric and thicker padding.

We replaced our carpet with Allure while we were doing that and removed the seatbelts with the intention of putting them back in once the flooring project was completed. Once we finished the flooring we decided not to replace the seatbelts because we didn't want to have the straps showing on the floor and did not want to drill holes into our pretty new flooring. We haven't yet decided exactly how to secure the chairs while traveling, but no one would sit in them anyway.

I believe we could have used the sofa seatbelts to secure the recliners for travel but they would not allow someone to safely sit in them unless you could bolt the recliners in.

There is a sign by our our old sofa that said not to be used when traveling. I assumed it was because the people would not have been facing forward and could have caused greater injuries in a collision.

We need our recliners to be able to move a little.

You can check out my blog if you'd like to see the recliners. There are several posts labeled, "Allure Flooring"

Florida-Georgia Camping, Kayaking and Exploring

[JeeperJohn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob (WA0MQE) I did the same thing also. Here's a couple of photos showing where we put them in place of the large hide-a-bed couch and the type of recliners. We chose this style because they're a little bit smaller then the typical recliner.

Bob, this looks great! We are wanting to do the same to our 36' Allegro Bay. Would you share with us the brand name of your recliners? Where you purchased them, etc.? Are they as comfortable as they look? We have been searching on line and the prices are all over the place and it is hard to tell the real quality from a picture. We don't want to pay too much, but don't want to pay too little and wish we had paid more (if you know what I mean!).

Thanks for any tips to a "fellow retired carrier sailor '66-'88"

[GENECOP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeeperJohn Bob, this looks great! We are wanting to do the same to our 36' Allegro Bay. Would you share with us the brand name of your recliners? Where you purchased them, etc.? Are they as comfortable as they look? We have been searching on line and the prices are all over the place and it is hard to tell the real quality from a picture. We don't want to pay too much, but don't want to pay too little and wish we had paid more (if you know what I mean!). Thanks for any tips to a "fellow retired carrier sailor '66-'88"

We need a few of those recliners, i would love the info also, Gene

[FATMANAR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob (WA0MQE) I did the same thing also. Here's a couple of photos showing where we put them in place of the large hide-a-bed couch and the type of recliners. We chose this style because they're a little bit smaller then the typical recliner. I disassembled the couch in order to get it through the doorway, which was required due to it's physical size, but also because it broke down into enough pieces so I could carry it out by myself.

I would like to know where you got your table and chairs (dinette)

[Elkhartjim]

I would like to know what you all did with the sofa that you removed? Were you able to sell it? I guess we all have Flexsteel and that stuff isn't cheap new. I'm planning to remove mine also and install a flat screen tv directly across from the recliners. No more creaked neck.

[exrench]

I have been watching these posts,hoping to see someone who wanted to toss his 72 inch Flexsteel Magic Bed.We could talk!

[Elkhartjim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by exrench I have been watching these posts,hoping to see someone who wanted to toss his 72 inch Flexsteel Magic Bed.We could talk!

I don't know if its magic but it is the air bed. If I toss it, how much would you give me to catch it?

[krnlueck]

We looked at those Euro style recliners but finally decided against them because we felt the ottoman would take up too much room and would always be in the way.

The photo above looks like they have opposing slides giving more room, and they look great. On our MH, we just have the one living room slide so we went with regular smaller recliners.

We found some smaller recliners. They are 32 wide, 34 deep and 37 high. They are smaller than regular recliners but very comfortable.

If anyone is interested, they are made by Best Furniture. Apparently they make them for lots of furniture stores. We bought outs at Havertys' furniture in Florida. They are made to a little higher standard for Haverty's than the ones we saw at other stores, (thicker fabric and more padding). We also found them at Kanes Furniture and Babcocks also sold Best Furniture but didn't sell those particular recliners.

They come in 2 pieces so they easily fit into the MH.

If anyone wants to see them, I have pictures on my blog.

Florida-Georgia Camping, Kayaking and Exploring